Aussie uranium miners jump as Trump's AI investment, Canada tariff plans augur well

Boss Energy

22/01/2025 05:51

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Stocks of Australian uranium miners
rose between 3% and 10% on Wednesday, propelled largely by a
planned $500 billion private sector investment to fund AI
infrastructure and U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for
tariffs on major uranium exporter Canada.
    Nuclear energy has become a compelling low-carbon source to
run power-guzzling data centres behind AI, with Big Tech firms
striking multiple billion-dollar deals with utilities.
    Australia, which houses around one-third of global uranium
resources, supplied nearly 15% of the United States' imports in
2021 - more than half of Australia's total exports - according
to data from the World Nuclear Association. 
    "Nuclear is gaining traction globally as a source of
reliable energy for the future that meets energy security
requirements and decarbonisation goals," Regan Burrows, equity
research analyst at Bell Potter Securities, said.
    Boss Energy's  BOE.AX  shares surged more than 14% to end
the session at its highest price since early November. Deep
Yellow's  DYL.AX  shares jumped roughly 8% and ended at a near
three-month high.
    Paladin Energy  PDN.AX , which owns 75% of the Langer
Heinrich uranium mine in Namibia, gained 10% to end the day at
its highest since mid-November last year.
    Paladin's stock was also bolstered by a strong quarterly
output report.
    Lotus Resources  LOT.AX  advanced 4.3% and ASX-listed shares
for Canada's NextGen Energy  NXG.AX  added 3.2%.
    George Ross, a senior analyst at Argonaut, said, "Uranium
miners are up today on positive macro news out of the U.S. on
Trump's planned $500 billion "Stargate" AI infrastructure
project."
    "The planned data centres and computing infrastructure will
have significant electricity requirements and there is a better
than good chance that nuclear energy will be part of the
project's power solution."
    
    

 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar, Sneha Kumar and Himanshi Akhand
in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar;))